The Prince’s Dispatch
Major General John Bankhead Magruder Chapter 258 - Military Order of the Stars and Bars
Fredericksburg, Virginia – Volume 1, Number 14 – July 2005

Welcome to the The Prince’s Dispatch, quarterly newsletter of the Major General John Bankhead Magruder Chapter of the Virginia Society of The Military Order of the Stars and Bars.

The Magruder Chapter was chartered as Chapter #258 of the Virginia Society on 9 August 2000. Chapter meetings are held quarterly at a time and place announced in advance. The Chapter also gathers the second Wednesday of each month concurrently with the Matthew Fontaine Maury Camp #1722, Sons of Confederate Veterans at the Salem Library in Fredericksburg.

 

 Commodore George Allan Magruder, Sr., United States Navy, sprang from a distinguished sept of American Clan Magruder. He was a son of Thomas Magruder (1779-1830) of Prince Georges County, Md., and Elizabeth Bankhead;

grandson of George Fraser Magruder (1738-1801) and Eleanor Bowie; great grandson of William Magruder (1701-65) and Mary Fraser and great, great grand-son of Samuel Magruder (I) and Sarah Beall, daughter of Col. Ninian Beau.

           Commodore Magruder’s mother was the daughter of James Bankhead, Jr., of Caroline County, Va., and Christian Miller. James Bankhead’s father was Dr. James Bankhead, Sr., who on Aug. 20, 1738, married Elinor Monroe, an aunt of James Monroe, third President of the United States.

           

        

 
 
 

One of Commodore Magruder’s brothers was Maj. Gen. John Bankhead Magruder, ‘Prince John” of the Confederacy. Another was the Hon. Allan Bowie Magruder, West Point graduate, United States Commissioner at Winchester, Va., Major in the Confederate States Army, and father of the novelist Julia Magruder. Commodore Magruder is believed to have been born in Port Royal, Va., in 1799. He died in England in 1871. His grandfather George Fraser Magruder owned a large plantation called “Blue Plains” on the Potomac River below Washington, D. C. and opposite George Washington’s “Mount Vernon”. He was a planter, slave owner and extremely wealthy for Colonial days.

        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About 1825, George Allan Magruder, Sr., married Maria Margaretta Swann, daughter of Caleb Swann of Cincinnati, Ohio. By this time there were five children: Ma]. George Allan Magruder, Jr., Confederate States Army; Ella Bankhead Magruder; Elizabeth Bankhead Magruder, who died young; Helen Magruder who became Lady Abinger; and Henrietta Magruder, described as that “petite and graceful Henrietta Magruder” among the belles mentioned in the book, ‘Belles, Beaux and Brains of the Sixties”.

George Allan Magruder, Sr., had four sisters, Isabella G. Magruder who married George P. Turner; Elizabeth Bankhead Magruder who married John L. Pendleton; Janetta Magruder who married Maj. Robert H. Poore; and Julianna Magruder. His brother, Gen,. John Bankhead Magruder married Esther Henrietta Van Kapff, daughter of the German Consul in Baltimore, and his other brother, Allan Bowie Magruder, of Virginia, married first Elizabeth Timberlake and second Sarah M. Guillam.


           The naval career of Commodore Magruder began Jan. 1, 1817, when he was appointed Midshipman from Port Royal, Va., and a month later ordered to report  to the U.S.S. Franklin at Philadelphia. He subsequently served on the U.S.S. Congress; attended Naval School on the U.S.S. Washington at New York; served  on the U.S.S. Grampus for duty in the West Indies.


 Promoted to Lieutenant, April 28, 1826, he was ordered to the U.S.S. Vincennes at New York. Vincennes was part of the Pacific Squadron. In 1833, he was ordered to the U.S.S. Delaware, the following year to the U.S. Frigate United States and in 1837 to the U.S. Macedonian, and in 1838 to the U.S.S. Columbia about to sail for the East India station.


In 1845, be was promoted to Commander and on Feb. 20, 1847, was assigned to the bomb vessel Vesuvius which was in Mexican waters from March 7 to the end of the Mexican War. During a part of this period, he served Governor of Laguna and was highly praised by Commodore Perry.


On June 16, 1847, he commanded the Third Division of Artillery from the Vesuvius in an expedition of three officers and twenty-eight men against Tobasco under command of Commodore Perry. He later commanded the U.S.S. Union and U.S.S. St. Marys, Pacific Squadron.


On May 24, 1855, he was detached from ordnance duty and appointed Captain of the Fleet and Ordnance Officer, Mediterranean Squadron. He was commissioned a Captain on September 24, of the same year. Detached from the Mediterranean Squadron, he was ordered to Washington and on September 24, 1860 was appointed Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography.
The late Peter H. Magruder, secretary of the United States Naval Academy, stated that as Chief of a Bureau in the Navy Department, Capt. Magruder had the relative rank of Commodore, as he was serving with Commodores Dupont, Maury and Barron, all four of whom were the Navy’s chief advisors at that time. He also pointed out while Commodore Magruder was not a graduate of the Naval Academy of today, he may fairly be classed as a graduate of the “Navy School” which the Naval Academy was first named, as all the early graduates were titled.
“At the outbreak of the Civil War, Commodore Magruder, being Southern born, tendered to the President on April 23, 1861, the resignation of his commission as Chief of Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography, and as Captain in the United States Navy.
“I take occasion to assure you that my resignation from a service to which I was sincerely attached was the most painful of my life. The land of my birth had left the Union, to my deep regret, and as I could not find it in my heart, to bear arms against her, I was reluctantly constrained to act as I did, and while I state this I have no hesitation in saying that under no circumstance could I be induced to bear arms against the Constitution and the Flag I love.
The Navy Department detached Commodore Magruder from the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography on April 23, 1861, the date of his resignation. However, on May 15, he was ordered dismissed as of April 22, one day before his resignation was received.


Commodore Magruder and his family left shortly thereafter for Montreal, Canada, and later took ship to England.George Allan Magruder, Jr., only son, however, remained in the United States and became an officer in the Confederate Army. At the time of his father’s resignation from the Navy, he was a student at the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington. Col. William Couper, executive officer at the Institute, in a recent letter, stated that George, Jr., matriculated July 25, 1859 and was declared a graduate as of December 6, 1861. He stood 25 in a class of 35. He entered the Institute with advanced standing. It is believed he is the George Magruder from the District of Columbia who attended the University of Virginia from 1853 to 1856.
In common with many cadets, he went with the Institute Corps to Richmond to train Confederate forces assembled there. During the War, he was in the Artillery Service and served as 1st Lieut. of Magruder’s Light Artillery and A.D.C. with his uncle Maj. Gen. John Bankhead Magruder in the Peninsula Campaign in the early part of the War.
When Gen. Magruder assumed command in Houston, Tex., on April 4, 1865, of the District of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, he announced the officers of his staff and among them was Maj. George Allan Magruder, Jr., who was Chief of Artillery. His parole was signed at New Orleans at the close of the War and his address given as Richmond, Va.
After the War, he rejoined his father in England. He was married twice but had no children. He died in 1912, at his home 4 Pond Point de Longchamps, Paris, France.
In England, Commodore Magruder’s three surviving daughters were famous beauties and belles of English society and all married British army officers. Henrietta married Howard Cockerill but had no children. They resided in London.  Ella Bankhead Magruder, youngest of the three sisters, married Robert James Burrowes of Stradone House, County Cavan, Ireland, where he was stationed as a British army officer. After his death, the home was occupied by his son Thomas James Burrowes until burned down by the Sinn Feiners during the Irish Rebellion. Another son was Maj. Robert Phillip Burrowes, veteran of the Boer War and World War I.

 The other child of Ella Magruder Burrowes was Kitty F. Burrowes who married Thomas George Wills-Sandford of Roscommon, Ireland, who died in 1948.  Mrs. Wills-Sandford  resided at Bournesmouth, England, where Chieftain Marshall Magruder visited her during his trip to Europe.
Mrs. Wills-Sandford has a daughter and a son who was an air force pilot in World War II. He was captured by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore and was a prisoner on Sumatra until the close of the war.  

             

 
 












































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Grave marker in memory of

Esther Winifred Hinegardner Green

Sunday, August 14, 2005, the ladies of the Fredericksburg Chapter #163 UDC and Manassas Chapter #175 UDC had a memorial service at the Manassas Cemetery to honor

Esther Winifred Hinegardner Green, a past Chapter President of both Chapters and past Virginia Division President.  Many of her relatives were at this ceremony from various parts of the country.
 
 


The Major General John Bankhead Magruder Chapter #258 fell in with the Color Guard of the Captain William L. Day Camp #2091, Sons of  Confederate Veterans.

As usual, the weather was as hot and humid as any August day in Virginia can be, but, those in uniform stood their ground as always and endured the heat.  They are dedicated to participating in  ceremonies where ever they may be held.

Pictured above are: left to right, Charles A. Embrey Jr., Louis Buttgen III (Chapter #258 MOSB)

Joseph Wright, Color Sgt., Jason Bradshaw, 1st Lt. Commander, John N. Sawyer, Commander, SCV, Camp #2091, and Charles A. Embrey Sr., Commander Chapter #258, MOSB

The picture in the lower left, resting on the headstone is Esther Winifred Hinegardner Green
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Iron Cross Dedication for

Lt. Judson Jackson Embrey

Pvt. Wilfred Smith Embrey

October 15, 2005

 

Sister and Brother—Mrs. Sarah Embrey Bass and

Mr. Alvin Thomas Embrey III are the great granddaughter and great grandson of Pvt. Wilfred Smith Embrey.  They did the unveiling of the Iron Cross on both grave sites.  They are standing beside  Pvt. Wilfred Embrey’s grave.

Lt. Judson Jackson Embrey would be their Great Uncle.
 

Participating in the dedication were Chapter #258, MOSB, Camp #1722, SCV, Camp #2091, SCV, Fredericksburg Chapter #163, UDC, Culpeper Chapter #73 UDC, Caroline Gray’s #2473, UDC, and Order of Southern Gray.  A large turnout of descendants and visitors were on hand for the dedication.
 
 

 

 

 


 

 

Mrs. Sarah Embrey Bass and her brother Mr. Alvin Thomas Embrey III are unveiling the Iron Cross on the grave of  Lt. Judson Jackson Embrey.

To the left is the Iron Cross on the grave of Pvt. Wilfred Smith Embrey.

Officiating the services and dedication is Charles A. Embrey Sr. Commander, Chapter #258 MOSB,  He is in the picture on page 4.

 

 
 

More pictures of the services.
 
 

 

 

 


                                                           

Top left is the Color Guard, on right are the Riflemen for the Rifle Volly.

The bottom left shows about half the people attending.  On the bottom right is a couple on vacation from Ireland that happened to be at the cemetery when we started the Dedication.    Lorna and Derek Uprichard, Co. Down, Ireland
 
 

 

 

 

 


 

 

38th CONGRESS

     2nd Session

S.R. 109.

 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

 

February 11, 1865

 

Mr. Pomeroy, from the Committee on Claims, submitted a report. (No. 118) accompanied

By the following joint resolution; which was read and passed to a second reading.

 

JOINT RESOLUTION

 

Authorizing to adjustment of the claim of George J. Stubblefield,

For chewing tobacco furnished to the United States.

 

1                    Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representa-

2                    tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3          That the Commissary General of Subsistence be, and he is

4          hereby, authorized and directed to adjust the claim of George

5                      J. Stubblefield, for chewing tobacco furnished by said Stub-

6                      blefield to the army of the United States under Major Gen-

7                      eral W. T. Sherman, at Atlanta, Georgia, upon the same

8                      principle and evidence as govern the adjustment of claims for

9                      authorized supplies received by the subsistence department of

10                  the United States under the act entitled “ An act to re-

11                  strict the jurisdiction of the Court of Claims, and to provide

12                  for the payment of certain demands for quartermasters’ stores

13                  and subsistence supplies furnished to the army of the United

14                  States,” approved July fourth, eighteen hundred and sixty

15                  four, and that such sum as shall be ascertained to be due,

16                  exceeding the sum of fourteen thousand seven hundred

17                  forty-six dollars and fifty cents, be paid out of any money

18                  the treasury not otherwise appropriated.

 

(editor: this is word for word and as printed on the original document from old records of the USA archives.  -- That was a lot of chewing tobacco.)

Events

 

Meeting for December

The December meeting will be held at Commander Embrey’s

Home December 10th , Saturday, 5.00 p.m.

28265 Constitution Hwy, Rhoadsville Va.  Covered dish dinner and meeting to swear in new Officers.  directions: West on Rt 3 to south route 20 towards Orange.  Nine and a half miles on right, across from “Double B Farms”.  Phone: 540-854-6444

The Commander and his wife will furnish a spiral ham.  The family is invited.

 

 

November 19 – 20

25th Annual Capital of the Confederacy Civil War Show

Richmond Raceway Complex, Richmond.  9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Saturday and

9.30 a.m. – 3 p.m. Sunday.  Held in the Main Exhibition Building.  Displays by collectors and several major museums, including the museum of the Confederacy.  More than 400 exhibitors will display thousands of war items.  Admission is $5.00 for adults.

Children Free.

 

MOS&B National Web Address

 

http://www.scv.org/mosb/

 

Virginia Society Web Address

 

http://www.vamosb.org

 

Magruder Chapter Web Address

 

http://www.jtdonnelly.com/mosb

 

 

                                                                       

Pledge of the Military Order of the Stars and Bars

 

“We the posterity of the Officer Corps and civil officials of the Confederacy do pledge ourselves to commemorate and honor the service of leadership these men rendered in the cause of the fundamental American principles of self-determination and states rights and to perpetuate the true history of their deeds for the edification of ourselves, our society, and for generations yet unborn.”